The wizarding world’s favorite half-giant said that the bearded hero Rubeus Hagrid would live on for generations.
The late Robbie Coltrane — who prolifically portrayed Professor Dumbledore’s jolly ally in the “Harry Potter” films — spoke out on the legacy he would be leaving behind not so long before his death at 72, which was announced Friday.
During HBO Max’s “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” which was released in January and features a cast reunion, Coltrane proudly boasted that his children, Spencer and Alice, would be able to appreciate and enjoy his magical creature-loving character long after he had passed away.
“The legacy of the movies is . . . that my children’s generation will show them to their children,” Coltrane said in between clips of the beloved Hogwarts groundskeeper.
Robbie Coltrane always wanted to leave behind a legacy for children to enjoy, he said.©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett C“So you could be watching it in 50 years time, easy. I’ll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will. Yes.”
Leaving a legacy behind for the kids of the world has always been an aspiration for Coltrane, he said after filming “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 2001.
“I’ve often thought while watching things like ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ with my kids, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be in a film like that and whole generations of kids would see it?’
“And now, it’s happened.”
Robbie Coltrane (top right) would often make cast and crew laugh on the “Harry Potter” set.Adam butlerThe magic he brought to “Harry Potter” wasn’t only enjoyed by children watching at home or movie theaters. Daniel Radcliffe said Coltrane would leave the cast in stitches while filming.
“Robbie was one of the funniest people I’ve met and used to keep us laughing constantly as kids on the set,” Radcliffe, who played the titular Boy Who Lived, told The Post in a statement.
Daniel Radcliffe (right) remembered Robbie Coltrane fondly. Jaap Buitendijk “I’ve especially fond memories of him keeping our spirits up on ‘Prisoner of Azkaban,’ when we were all hiding from the torrential rain for hours in Hagrid’s hut and he was telling stories and cracking jokes to keep morale up,” Radcliffe said of making the 2004 movie with Coltrane.
“I feel incredibly lucky that I got to meet and work with him and very sad that he’s passed. He was an incredible actor and a lovely man.”
